August 2008

Happy Monday and I'm a bit late again, but with a month like I had ... I lost my voice early July, struggled on, which wasn't good and made it worse by carrying on talking, well croaking to clients. I'm now being much more careful about resting, not raising my voice and trying to get sufficient sleep (not easy when camping at festivals).

July was a fantastic month - we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary, and this was particularly meaningful as we had to cancel the party planned for our 10th anniversary due to the floods last summer. With two years to prepare this was going to be awesome and it was!

We planned it to be like a mini festival ,with flags, and tents, but no mud as it was a prefect day - from chilling with Pimms on the lawn in the afternoon through to the evening with Les Barker, Alex Chapman and me making my debut on the decks. If you are on Facebook you can access all our photos through there.

We are now into festival season so weekends will see me having a great escapism from my work, I think this is one reason why I love music and dancing so much as it gives me a chance to escape from my head into my body!

I've had some great feedback from clients - from a one hour decision making session to a young man completing the gold programme and saying it was a life changing experience. I've also had a client give me less than positive feedback. I do encourage feedback good and bad and hearing what she had to say enabled me to put things right and now she's happy! Partly this was due to a mix up over what email address to use, so I've now made some process changes to make sure I ask clients their preferred contact method.

I do hope you are having the summer you want to have and look forward to talking to you again in September.

In this months issue you can read:

• Article 1: How to choose a career coach
• Featured Service: The one hour session
• Article 2: When you lose your voice
• What Denise did last month
• In the Blog

I hope you enjoy reading this.  Do get in touch if you think I can help in any way, or with any suggestions for topics to cover next month. I look forward to talking to you again next time.

Almost forgot, a huge welcome to the 47 subscribers who have signed up since the last newsletter, really pleased to see you here and if I can be of any help do get in touch.

Kindest regards,

You have probably read the books but somehow you are no further forward in search for a career that makes you happy. Perhaps it’s now time to find a specialist career coach to help you.

Research shows that people who are most satisfied and motivated in their careers are people who have a career that reflects their values, interests, skills, and abilities, plus are clear on what they want out of life and what’s their ideal working environment.

If you are not happy in your work, a career coach may be able to help you, to uncover the right career for you.

There are many people offering career coaching, counselling and advice. Life coaches may be good in supporting you to achieve goals and step through your fear, but do they have sufficient specialist knowledge? You may prefer to work with a specialist psychologist or careers advisor.

It can appear cheaper to opt for a group programme, but most people will make greater progress by working one to one with personal attention.Over the past few years the number of coaches has exploded and many of these are now offering career coaching, so how can you choose between them?

• Speak to at least 3 coaches and find out about their backgrounds. Who did they train with, what specific training and experience do they have to be a career coach? Coaches can set them selves up as a career coach with just a days training or even less – training programmes are available for $99, is that sufficient background for you?
• As you talk to them see if you have rapport. To get the best from the service you will need to be open and honest, so make sure you feel at ease with them.Find out about their coaching style. Some may follow a tried and tested programme, others may be more open ended. Do you work best with structure or would you rather it be free flowing. Make sure the coaches style matches with your preference.

To download the full report

You don't have to book a programme, sometimes we can address your needs through one or two individual sessions. This could be to help you decide about your future career and life plans, perhaps to enable you to thoroughly consider a possible next step, or to discuss the impact of a choice. One to one coaching can provide an opportunity to work on a number of different areas:

• Think about who you are and what you want, in your work and personal life.
• Have some time to discuss how you feel about your current situation.
• Objective assistance in finalising a decision.
• Discuss what your next career move should be.
• Exploring ways of making yourself more marketable.
• Review a recent appraisal, or disappointment at interview or assessment centre.
• Take stock of your life and career and decide whether to focus on regaining the passion for your job or to make the transition to move elsewhere.
• Time to focus on you, especially if you feel you are heading for burn out.
• Prepare a strategy for a new job or to enhance your career prospects.
• Review a recent appraisal, performance review or assessment centre.
• A chance to reflect on the last 12 months and make plans for the year ahead.

£80 for the first session, £70 for subsequent sessions.

You can read feedback from a recent client using the link below

To read Lindseys feedback

• To rest the voice with absolutely NO talking for as long as you can manage it (keep completely silent for at least 1-2 days, you can feel your voice starting to get stronger), or if you do have to talk at times make it as minimal or quiet/low as is possible. 
• Avoid whispering
• Drink lots of water or camomile tea or hot lemon and honey, possibly with glycerine, or fresh pineapple juice and honey or sage tea
• Breathe steam for 10 minutes (head over a bowl of hot water)
• Take ginger chews from the health food shop
• Take vegetable soup
• Suck Zinc lozenges
• Eat spoonfuls of manuka honey
• Cut a slice of onion (a thick slice right through the middle so you have a round circle), place on a saucer and sprinkle liberally with sugar. Leave to stand so all the juice runs out and then gargle with the juice. I did try this and it wasn’t as bad as it sounds!
• Stay away from dairy food, coffee and alcohol
• Relax – that’s the hard one!, hot bath and a good nights sleep
• Visualise my throat getting better and do deep breathing
• Wear blue around my throat, e.g. turquoise stone or scarf
• Focus on my breathing, to start from the diaphragm not the throat
• Think about the reasons why I don’t want to talk – what am I not saying to someone

Just a short call on Radio Gloucestershire, right from the Big Chill!

• Undertook 43 client sessions, ranging from interview practice for an international marketing director to helping a young man decide whether to go to university or not.
• 1 day assessing
• 25 entries on my blog
• 2 further days of DJ training with DJ Tanz
• Short appearance on Radio Gloucestershire
• Festival trips to 02 wireless for Fat Boy Slim and Underworld, Nozstock and the Big Chill.

http://www.amazingpeople.co.uk/blog/

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Here's a selection from what was on the Blog in July

• Client feedback from a 1 hour session
• Why I love being a career coach
• Career coaching for blooming clients
• Do you need a career coach - part 1: career exploration and discovery
• Career coaching - one hour decision making session
• Leadership development - quick tip 4
• Graduates - the reality of job search
• Happy at work - when career coaching can help
• More about the Strong Interest Inventory
• When you lose your voice … 
• Psychometrics- the importance of a feedback discussion
• Passions - part of your job or to compliment your work?